Tuesday marks the Feast of the Six Martyrs of Wales and their Companions. These are six Welshmen among the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales – two from the Tudor era, one from the reign of James I, and three from the so-called Popish Plot later in the seventeenth century.
St Richard Gwyn was from Montgomeryshire. A layman and school-teacher, he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Wrexham on 17 October 1584.
St John Jones, from Clynnog Fawr, Gwynned, was hanged, drawn, and quartered in London after two years imprisonment and torture on 12 July 1589.
St John Roberts, born in Trawsfynydd, Gwynedd, was executed at Tyburn on 10 December 1610.
St John Lloyd and St Philip Evans from Breconshire and Monmouth respectively. They were both executed at Cardiff in connection with the fake Popish Plot on 22 July 1679.
St David Lewis, from Abergavenny, was the last Welsh Martyr, executed at Usk on 27 August 1679.
There are also among the 85 Martyrs of England and Wales beatified by Blessed John Paul II in 1987
Blessed William Davies from Denbighshire; hanged drawn and quartered at Beaumaris Castle 27 July 1593. In addition, Blessed Charles Mahoney was Irish but was executed in Wales – his last words were: “Now Almighty God is pleased I should suffer this martyrdom. His Holy Name be praised since I die for my religion.”
England and Wales celebrate the 40 and the 85 together on 4 May – Feast Day for all the Catholic Martyrs of the English Reformation in England and Wales. However in Wales we also celebrate our own martyrs on a separate Feast Day on 25th October. That was the original date of the canonization of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales by Pope Paul VI in 1970, and previously the Feast of the 40 Martyrs throughout England & Wales.
Fr Matthew
